Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
Adaptive collaborative management of community forests in Asia ...
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Chapter 5: Muddl<strong>in</strong>g Towards Cooperation <strong>in</strong> Mal<strong>in</strong>au • 147<br />
the <strong>in</strong>ertia <strong>of</strong> ‘feel<strong>in</strong>g good about each other’, which bl<strong>in</strong>ds everyone to the<br />
lack <strong>of</strong> effective action. It also means that the group with the most power<br />
can control the agenda at the likely cost <strong>of</strong> benefits to more marg<strong>in</strong>alised<br />
groups. Under the New Order <strong>of</strong> Soeharto, central government controlled<br />
the agenda but was too remote to understand communities’ needs. Now<br />
district governments are seek<strong>in</strong>g to control the agenda but have little<br />
capacity or flexibility to address communities’ priorities except where there<br />
are co<strong>in</strong>cidental convergences <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>terests.<br />
Our conclusion is that empower<strong>in</strong>g marg<strong>in</strong>alised groups requires a<br />
strategy for secur<strong>in</strong>g the long-term support <strong>of</strong> controll<strong>in</strong>g authorities while<br />
creat<strong>in</strong>g the space to work with different entities with<strong>in</strong> that authority<br />
and <strong>in</strong>dependently <strong>in</strong> the short term. It may also require constructive<br />
confrontation rather than collaboration, as long as that confrontation does<br />
not backfire and hurt the groups it <strong>in</strong>tended to benefit. Underly<strong>in</strong>g either<br />
approach is the need for political sensitivity and savvy to understand and<br />
work with local power relations constructively (Forester 1989). We feel<br />
strongly that collaboration needs to be pursued as a means, not as an end <strong>in</strong><br />
itself. In this current phase we are mov<strong>in</strong>g cautiously forward with programs<br />
that we hope will better complement government yet not be dependent on<br />
their actions. We seek a less proactive role and rely more on co<strong>in</strong>cidental<br />
convergences <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>terests.<br />
Ironically, tak<strong>in</strong>g this role allowed us to appreciate more fully the exist<strong>in</strong>g<br />
spontaneous order <strong>of</strong> cooperation and how to work with<strong>in</strong> it. With such an<br />
uneven and complex set <strong>of</strong> relationships, <strong>in</strong>terdependencies among groups<br />
become problematic. Achiev<strong>in</strong>g any k<strong>in</strong>d <strong>of</strong> direct coord<strong>in</strong>ated action<br />
(beyond organis<strong>in</strong>g s<strong>in</strong>gle events) becomes difficult, even with patience,<br />
a will<strong>in</strong>gness to compromise and a reasonable budget. It is not clear that<br />
these diverse groups are will<strong>in</strong>g or able to solve their problems themselves,<br />
even with facilitation (Hagmann 1999).<br />
Under such complex circumstances, each group needs space to manoeuvre<br />
<strong>in</strong>dependently. Cooperation occurs as a spontaneous order (diZerega 2000)<br />
<strong>in</strong> which participants pursue their own ends and mutually adjust to one<br />
another; it is polycentric, rather than guided by a s<strong>in</strong>gle organisation. In<br />
spontaneously organised cooperation, competition can exist and even<br />
promote more rigorous outcomes than it would <strong>in</strong> the self-organised orders<br />
<strong>of</strong> science, markets or democracy (diZerega 2000). Spontaneous orders<br />
can <strong>in</strong>corporate more complex relationships and <strong>in</strong>formation because they